


Ghosts of Memories

by ladyofbadgers



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, I don't know how to tag this, Oh god, Takes place after Kaidan comes back in ME3, tw scars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-18
Updated: 2015-05-18
Packaged: 2018-03-31 04:37:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3964642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyofbadgers/pseuds/ladyofbadgers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>We all have stories. Sometimes they only change a little and sometimes, they change dramatically. Her story did both.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ghosts of Memories

**Author's Note:**

> I'm my own beta, so any mistakes are mine.

It was the feather light touch that woke her. Fingers running softly over her cheekbone, across her nose to her other cheek, tracing what was no longer there. The sensation traveled down her neck, drifting across phantom memories, pausing when it reached her upper arm.

“Do you have me memorized?” She asked without opening her eyes. He smiled. She could always hear it when he smiled. The corners of her own mouth lifted in response.

“I used to,” came the slightly rough reply. There was a pause. “Do you miss them?” He wasn't smiling now. She opened her eyes and looked at him. He was framed in the soft glow of the fish tank, giving his skin a slightly blue cast. His touch still lingered on her arm. She looked down at his hand. There was a small circular patch, no bigger than the head of a push pin, that was darker than the surrounding skin. A few inches below it, there was another. And below that, another. The pattern continued down her arm to her wrist and repeated itself on her other side. She moved her gaze to his chest and reached out to trace the lines that covered it, the jagged tear that wrapped around his side, the pucker wounds that peppered his abdomen. 

“Would you?”

“They remind me what I've been through. I think I would.” His hand moved down her arm to her wrist and he held her hand against his chest. “A lot has happened to get me here, but I wouldn't change a single thing.” She frowned and pulled her hand away, gingerly touching her own face, following the path his fingers had a few minutes ago. The tightness and raised skin that had taken months to get used to wasn't there anymore, which had been disconcerting in itself. When she had been rebuilt, they hadn't bothered to recreate the remnants of her past. There was now clean skin where once it had been marred by history.

“I still have scars, Kaidan.”

“They’re not the same. These,” he touched the patches on her arm again, “are something that was done to you. They don’t show choices you've made or things you've accomplished.” She met his eyes then. She’d never liked her scars before. To her, all they had been was a reminder of fallen friends. But to him, they told a story. Her story. He had run his hands along them and kissed them as if they had been something sacred. And now that story had changed. Their story had changed. Now he always stopped a moment when he touched them. Silence stretched between them. Shadows drifted across his face from the fish as they just stared at each other.

Finally she said, “I do miss them sometimes.” She raised a hand to his face, touching the scars around his eyes that you could only see if you knew they were there. And she knew. She had seen what caused them, watched while it happened and been unable to move. She moved forward and pressed her lips to his temple, then to the other one. Pushing him onto his back, she moved down his body, giving the same reverence to each of his scars that he had given to hers. He smiled. A smile reserved only for her. It sounded brighter than his normal smile. He pulled her back up to him, rolled them over and kissed her, his hands skating down her body. This time when he touched her, he didn't pause.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic. Ever. In the history of my fannish life. I'm so nervous oh god. Katya is my newest Shepard and there may be more to come with her. This scene popped into my head as I was creating her yesterday. My tumblr is queenofthebadgers.tumblr.com . I would do a link, but I'm not that savvy yet. All comments and/critiques are most welcome. The title and summary are terrible. I wanted to get this up before I lost my nerve.


End file.
